On Friday night, the Indians lost 3-2 to a superior baseball team in the Seattle Mariners. Yes, I mean that: the Mariners are a better team than the Indians.

The Mariners, boasting a lineup of Robinson Cano and 8 guys you’ve probably never heard of, are now 43-37 on the season, while the Indians are headed in the opposite direction at 38-41.

How did the Indians lose? Well, it’s a simple recipe really: Trevor Bauer allowed 11 total baserunners in 6.1 innings (3 runs), and the Indians offense never really got going. It was a quality start from Bauer and a worthy effort — the kid is not an ace yet, but he is rarely putrid on the mound. He didn’t have lights out stuff, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of about a 6.1 IP, 3 ER effort.

No, this loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the Cleveland offense, who failed to mount any sort of a sustained attack against Mariners starter Chris Young and the surprisingly decent bullpen brigade of the great Northwest. Of the team’s 7 hits, 3 went to Michael Bourn and 2 went to Jason Kipnis (who seems to be starting one of his patented offensive tears, with 7 hits now on this 3 game road trip). It is exceedingly hard to string hits together when your entire offense comes from one or two guys.

Nick Swisher did take a walk and hit a nice single in the 9th inning, but his average is still below .200, so he still has a long way to go to respectability.

Vinnie Pestano has been very respectable since returning to the major league roster last week — he helped get the team out of a jam in the bottom of the 8th inning that could have seen the score spiral out of control.

David Murphy is now 1 for his last 39 (I believe) — and as his slump reaches Mark Reynoldsian levels the goodwill he established with a torrid April is quickly fading.

At some point the Indians need to put a good effort together for multiple games at a time. We have seen some crazy stuff in Cleveland over the past year and a half, but I fear this team is digging itself into a hole that it won’t be able to pull its way out of. The Indians absolutely have to finish this road trip strong against a shockingly decent Seattle team and a dangerous Dodgers team.

Tomorrow’s game is at 10:10pm EST, where Josh Tomlin will square off against some guy you haven’t heard of (Roenis Elias, who has a 7-4 record on this, his rookie season).

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We signed David Murphy when we could have had Nelson Cruz. That’s sobering. With Cruz and Kazmir we’d probably be in 1st place right now.

The GM’s #1 priority in July should be to find a way to move some of these terrible contracts. Three quarters of the payroll (almost $60MM) is being spent on just six guys: Swisher ($15MM), Bourn ($13.5MM), Cabrera ($10MM), Murphy ($5.5MM), Masterson ($9.8MM) and Axford ($4.5MM). If any of them go on a hot streak in July, it’s time to sell to any contender that thinks they can use them. Swisher is untradeable but the others are not.

Ryan McCrystal

Murphy/Cruz is a tough comparison to make. Cruz is making $8M this year and Murphy is making $5.5M, so it looks like the Indians could have spent an extra $2.5M for a huge upgrade. But it’s not that simple when you consider the Indians would have lost their 1st round pick (something they value greatly as a small market team). On top of that, Cruz’s price came down dramatically because no one wanted to give up the draft pick.. the Rangers originally offered him $14.1M but he turned it down.

So when the Indians signed Murphy, Cruz likely wasn’t even on their radar screen as a possibility.

Gvl Steve

Yeah, you’re right. I forgot about the draft pick compensation issue with Cruz. I thought it was only Kendrys Morales and Stephen Drew that had the draft comp tied to them. And as I remember, the Indians grabbed Murphy right at the very beginning of the free agent signing period, before the market was really set. Hopefully this June swoon for Murphy is just a short-term slump and not a continuation of last year’s fall-off. I don’t mind that he doesn’t hit homeruns as long as he’s hitting over .270 and driving in runs in the clutch, but this month has been brutal.